Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Altruism The greatest Ideal

Altruism – The greatest IdealSelf sacrifice we drool is the ultimate virtue. Is sacrifice a virtue? Can a man sacrifice his integrity? His honor? His convictions? The honesty of his feelings? The independence of his thoughts? These are man's quintessential and supreme possessions. Anything he gives up for them is not a sacrifice but an easy bargain. These are above sacrifice, any cause or consideration.Is then preaching "sacrifice being the supreme virtue" not a vicious nonsense? Self Sacrifice...thats an interesting thought. Is'nt it superfluous? It is precisely the self that cannot and should not be sacrificed. It is the unsacrificed self that is respected and should be respected in man.We hear often that altruism is the ideal. An altruist is an idealist. Selflessness is preached in every so called "ethical" text. Not a single one has ever achieved it. A man's every single living instinct screams against it involuntarily.In the process man realizes that he is incapable of what he has accepted as the noblest virtue, giving him a sense of guilt, of sin, of thy own basic unworthiness. This "supreme" ideal is beyond conviction, beyond the basic grasp of the instinct. He is obliged to preach what cannot be practiced. One cannot go "good" midway or be honest approximately. Preserving one's integrity is the highest of all noble things.I want so slightly travel in time and look back at what history has had in store for us. Most great systems of ethics preach the sacrifice of personal joy. They have all had a common lineage- sacrfice, renunciation of thy self, self denial of things that make a man happy. Everything enjoyable from sex, to cigars to ambition is considered sinful. Of course its not said plain, it needs to be dressed up with some alphabetical soup like "Universal Harmony", "Eternal Purpose", "Nirvana'. This is the epitome of internal corruption. We have tied happiness with guilt. That’s how far we have come, throttled mankind's happiness.What is the world we are striving for the future? To act together. To think together. To have a notion of “society” or “common universe” where we want to feel together. To unite, to agree, to obey. To obey, to serve, to sacrifice. I am afraid to see where this is leading, a world of obedience and unity. A world where the thought of each man will not be his own, but an attempt to guess the thought of the neighbour who will not have his own but an attempt to guess the thought of the next neighbour who will not have any thoughts. A world where no man will hold a desire for himself but direct all his efforts to satisfy the desires of his neighbour who will have no desires but to satisy the desires of his next neighbour who will have no desires. This is “society” gentlemen, a collective opinion of people who have no opinions of their own. A world where man will not work for passion, for a lesser incentive called money, but for the headless monster – prestige. The approval of his fellow “human” beings, their good opinion and the opinion of the men who have no opinion of their own. There would be no objective judgement, but only opinion polls. A world driven by collective mediocres where no individuality would be permitted. A single hand, and the hands of a few who know what makes the other man tick by persuasion, power or otherwise. Where men merely become bromides. We will learn ultimate submission to men who have learnt nothing but submission. And we call it “serve”. We will fall over others to see who can “serve” best. There will be no other distinction to seek, no other form of personal enjoyment. When freaks are occasionally born, they would be forced to perish. The rest of us will smile and obey. And what are the skills we need to survive in this new world? To lie, to flatter, to to praise each other and inflate each other’s vanity. Make speeches about people and how to serve them better and not to forget the common good. And this makes us “selfless” for we are so much concerned about our fellow human beings. The men who survive will submit, obey and smile. Have we observed that a dolt always smiles. Man’s first frown is the first touch of thought, the touch of god. But we will have neither god, nor thought. Everything is contained in one single word – collectivism, embrace the group view and forget the individual which forms the group. The individual is held as evil, as an egomaniac and the group as god. Kill the individual, that’s the anthem of the new world. No motive and no virtue of the individual permitted but virtue is seen by serving the mass. We have fixed the coin, heads collectivism, tails society. So how do we appreciate individual greatness. What’s great anyway in a man? We are just a mere combination of glands, flesh and fat. Adding to this are words like “divine institution”, “instinct”, “feeling” etc. Here, man must not try to think, he must feel. He must believe. Suspend reason. So how we rule a thinking man? What about nurturing genius? Do we want any?.....

1 comment:

Sreekanth
said...

Yeah I kind of agree the society is actually the chains which tie a human being to mediocrity... But Altruism is an ideal concept which kind of restricts the unbounded humanity. It restricts a humans growth since growth unrestricted is also dangerous